Posts Tagged With: Valspar

So I mentioned a few posts ago that I started work on the camper. We made the list last fall but work didn’t begin in earnest until February when I started painting. As I previously mentioned, I used an oil-based paint and we’ve only camped once but so far it is holding up well.

I did use a bonding primer which has a chalky finish so the oil-based paint grabbed the surface which is just a contact paper of sorts adhered to plywood or particle board. I researched the paint & primer early, bought the primer and put a coat on the cabinet doors. Because I didn’t know what color, the primed doors sat in the garage almost two months. I needed to chose a color.

In order to chose a color, I had to choose the fabric for the curtains and cushion covers. I shopped for fabric locally at JoAnn’s and a few upholstery shops the variety wasn’t great and it ranged from $15 – $60 a yard. I needed 12 yards.

Enter Fabricwarehouse.com. From the day I started my camper Pinterest board I was picturing strips for the curtains and a pattern (maybe polka dots) on the cushions. Fabricwarehouse.com will send an 8 x 9” sample which is big enough to get a good idea of the quality of the fabric as well as what the pattern looks like. The quality is really nice – I actually have done another project with another order from Fabric order from them (details still coming) and was just as happy with that fabric.

My fabric $8.89/yard. Great, right!

Anyway, once I had the curtain fabric I could move on with the paint. I chose the smallest color from the fabric and got to work. February is generally a really nice month to do outside projects in North Carolina, low humidity, warm enough to work…so I got started.

When I finally got to work on this project it really didn’t take that long. I spread it out over about three months just because I couldn’t decide on a color but it could all be done in about 4 days and that includes time for completely drying and as many coats as needed.

I have a kid who’s room often looks like the closet threw up clothes all over the room. There is no other explanation of how the floor can be clean in the morning and by early evening it looks like a disaster.

The other day he counted and discovered he owns 84 t-shirts, well no wonder the room looks like it does, who can keep 84 t-shirts folded and neat? (Just so you don’t judge me too harshly…I didn’t buy all those t-shirts. Many of them were freebies but 84 feels like hoarding!)

He didn’t even have a dresser to keep them (or anything else) in. So, we went to Craig’s list to find a cheap one.

This is what we found:

I knew I was going to paint it so I didn’t have too high of standards. I did fork out $50 which was probably high but I couldn’t live with the laundry explosion state of his room much longer.

1. Spray Paint projects have to be done outside. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem but this summer North Carolina is very similar to a rain forest so any project outside seems to be interrupted by the rain. So, I spent about twice as long expected on this.,

2. Spray Paint on this veneer resulted in a soft finish which meant it was easy to scuff the surface.

3. While Spray Paint comes in a lot of colors, it doesn’t come in every color so I had to go with what was closest rather than having regular paint matched.

4. I am not very good at spray painting. I didn’t wait long enough between coats. I sprayed too fast, too close and too heavily. I should have watched more Youtube videos and taken my time.

The upside:

1. Spray painting is kind of fun.

2. This was just cheap veneer on part of the dresser so I don’t even know what I would have had to do to prepare the surface for regular paint.

So, the finished project looks like this:

For the Braves logo I used my Silhouette cutter, blew the A up and cut it out in pieces then put it on the drawers like this:

There was some overspray on the drawers and I am still thinking about cutting the A out in red vinyl and putting it over that A but right now Jr. likes it and there are quite a few less t-shirts laying around his room, so I guess mission accomplished.

Our Sweetpea recently moved to her own place. Now, secretly I am a little happy because there are plenty of projects I’d love to try but don’t have the room to put the re-done stuff, so now I have a chance to do a few re-do’s for her place.

The first thing she and her roomy need were barstools so I happily accomdated. After perusing Craig’s list, I got lazy and went to Goodwill and found two of these:

I say got Lazy because Craig’s list is too much work, sometimes. You send a few emails, maybe they get answered. If the item is really good, it’s probably gone before I hear back. If you read the rest of my posts or my about me page, you’ll know I have already established my impatience. So, I paid $15 each.

I hadn’t spray painted something this big before and wanted to try it on this project. The can of Krylon that said to lightly sand the chair before I painted. Well, I sanded one chair lightly and it turned out like this:

The stool once it was sanded.

I sanded, wiped down with a tacky (slightly damp) cloth then with a dry cloth. When it was completely clean, I started spraying, and spraying, then I sprayed again. I wasn’t happy with the coverage. I got impatient (big surprise), sprayed too close, then the paint dripped. So I sanded that part down and re-sprayed.

When it was time for a 3rd (!) coat, I found my self out of paint so I went to Lowe’s where the house brand of paint is Valspar. I have used Valspar paint in the can and been happy with it, but what was this? Right next to the Krylon, was Valspar Spray Paint!

I took this stuff home finished the first bar stool and started on the 2nd.

This paint is a great tool for a few reasons:

1. It comes out almost as a mist so it’s really hard to make it drip or make much of a mess

2. It doesn’t have a cap, it has a turn lid. I hate prying the cap off Spray Paint Cans.

4. (This is my favorit one!) It doesn’t require sanding. I bought the primer (not sure if I needed) but I did use it, lightly, I mean lightly primed then I painted.

Lightly primed chair --see I didn't even cover everything that well.

The Valspar coverage was much better. I did have some trouble when the last third, or so, of the first can seemed to clog up. I was able to use it, but it was really hard to spray. The other two cans didn’t act that way so it must have been a bad can. So, this is how it turned out:

The chairs primed & painted

I recovered the seats (details on that in another post) and the turned out like this: